(Washington, D.C.)—AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler delivered a keynote address at the Foreign Policy for America Leadership Summit today, where she called for a new approach that leaves behind “the neoliberal policies we have largely tried for the past three decades [that] have not worked” and advances “a new vision that is rooted in the needs of working people.”
In the speech, Shuler offered four pillars for a new American foreign policy: economic opportunity for all, a trade model that puts working people first, giving workers a voice when it comes to the technologies that will shape the future, and a recognition that no conflict has ever benefitted working people. She emphasized that “unions have always seen tariffs as one of the tools in our trade policy tool box,” and called on the conference to “not see trade as a binary of free trade versus protectionism,” but rather ask to what and whom “is trade in service?”
Shuler closed by reminding attendees that labor unions “are the champions of democracy.” “Build a mass movement in this moment, pass policies that empower us, and we will prove it again,” she said.
Remarks by President Shuler as Delivered:
Good morning, everyone. Thank you Kristina for that introduction.
It’s a great honor to be here, and be part of this important conversation alongside Senator Kim and Representative Ansari. I want to thank Andrew [Albertson, Executive Director], and the Foreign Policy For America team for your work, and I’m very much looking forward to my conversation with Doug [Palmer, Politico].
I’m here today, first and foremost, representing 15 million working people in our Federation. Workers who have jobs in every sector of our economy: teachers and nurses; autoworkers and engineers; construction and the trades.
Workers who are deeply affected, every day, by the foreign policy of this country — whether that is the global conflicts that involve our veterans, who come home and rejoin the workforce forever changed … or our trade policy, which as we’ve seen the past few weeks, affects the cost of living for every family in this country.
I’m here to talk about those policies and their impact. But I’m also here because I believe there is something *bigger* the labor movement can offer in this moment.
I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say: I am deeply concerned for our democracy, and the future of democracy across the globe.
That word, democracy, means rule by the people. That idea is at the heart of every union that has ever existed. It means every worker has a voice when it comes to their future; has a voice when it comes to their basic rights and dignity. And has a belief that things can get better, because they have that voice.
Right now, workers have lost that belief.
Much of the post-war system of multilateralism has been hollowed out. Deregulation and bad trade deals have consolidated power, and allowed global corporations to run amok. Mainstream political parties have failed to deliver meaningful change.
What’s left is vast swaths of people who are disillusioned and disenfranchised — and have unsurprisingly turned to far-right populists and authoritarians to deliver any kind of change in their lives.
The autocrats have done what autocrats do best: Divide us along lines of culture, status, race, and gender.
Isolate us by weakening our alliances, gutting our foreign assistance, and removing us from the global dialogue — as we saw again this past week, when this Administration banned U.S. agencies from working on the G-20 in South Africa.
We are experiencing the largest rupture to the global economic and geopolitical order since World War 2. And we have two choices in front of us.
This can be the beginning of a very dark path — of authoritarians seizing more and more power of inequality continuing to grow to all-time highs of climate disaster, A.I. overreach, and isolationism. Or this can be the moment when we create a new vision. A new vision that is honest about the fact that the neoliberal policies we have largely tried for the past three decades have not worked. A new vision that is rooted in the needs of working people.
That kind of vision cannot be achieved behind closed doors.
It needs to come from a mass movement. It needs to come because people — at home and abroad — are inspired to believe in democracy again, believe that it is the system to deliver them more opportunity, more dignity, and a better life.
What I want to propose to you today is four pillars for that vision. Four pillars that, if we follow them can not only help us emerge from this moment, but build a global economy that works for every person on this planet.
The first pillar is economic opportunity for all.
For decades, governments have allowed the richest individuals and corporations to avoid paying their fair share. It is time for tax policies that are progressive, not regressive. It is time for the fair taxation of wealth and capital, the closure of corporate tax loopholes, and a binding United Nations Framework Convention on Tax to ensure multinational corporations pay taxes where they earn their profits.
We must also address the power imbalances that exist due to race, gender, immigration status — recognizing that too many have been held back from the opportunity to build and accumulate wealth.
And core to all of this is ensuring every worker in the world has the basic right to organize — to form a union, and fight for better wages, better benefits and health care, and a chance to work and retire with dignity.
The second pillar is a trade model that puts working people first.
Unions have always seen tariffs as one of the tools in our trade policy tool box. We should not see trade as a binary of free trade versus protectionism, but rather we should ask: What is trade in service to? To whom is trade in service?
We also know that a tariff alone can not grow jobs long-term without investments. Currently, this administration has not said anything about making investments in critical industries like steel and auto. We are actually hearing about a stalling of, or even elimination, of the tax incentives and grants that were supported through the Inflation Reduction Act. Creating these tariffs without making the right investments and choices here at home is like putting the car in neutral, then stepping on the gas.
It is time to think boldly about the trade model we do want to see.
I hear far too many people saying tariffs are just a bad idea and we should return to the free trade models of before. I would say in response: Look at what is happening through a political economy lens. Those old free trade models did not address the needs of workers and their communities, and they definitely did not address the needs of our planet.
Former Ambassador Tai helped our country begin to build a new framework for trade policy. She challenged the D.C. binary of free versus fair trade, and positioned us to look at trade in service of the most people and our planet.
These questions she and others began to ask are the ones we must continue to ask right now: How do these policies improve the lives of workers? Advance the clean energy transition and protect our environment?
The approach included an analysis of the distributional impacts of policies on communities impacted by trade, and ensured unions were at the table actively helping to shape the vision with other stakeholders. This was the right start and we needed more time to advance this new framework.
The third pillar is giving workers a voice when it comes to the technologies that will shape the future.
A few years ago, we at the AFL-CIO created a Tech Institute to be able to ground the needs of workers into shaping and implementing technology.
Workers have always been adapting to technology but they need to be a part of it and we need to advocate for safeguards that put people at the center of the debate around technology and in particular AI. At the global level, we were seeing movement to create some kinds of regulations around the use of AI and address data privacy concerns. But the current push for deregulation could set us back with these kinds of safeguards.
We need to shape technology that augments human capacity rather than just automate. Jobs that are automated and replaced means that we must also create incentives for companies to reskill or upskill their workforces.
And we need labor market policies that support and actually incentivizes the right to form a union which enables unions to work with employers to negotiate how technology is implemented in the workplace and it also creates space to envision transformed workplaces that have new technology. Unions negotiate to ensure a more equitable distribution of the benefits of increased productivity.
The fourth and final pillar is a recognition that no conflict, in the history of the world, has ever benefitted working people.
That means an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as we have called for, as we continue to work with the Palestinian labor movement — along with a release of the hostages and immediate humanitarian aid.
It means a long and lasting peace in the Ukraine, which working people deserve to have a stake in shaping — as we have helped support through our work with our brothers and sisters in the Ukrainian labor movement.
And as the world edges towards more global conflict it requires all of us remembering: No conflict is ever worth the extreme cost paid by working people and working families.
None of these four pillars requires a revolutionary act. But they do require us to think differently than we have in the past; to not follow the same old failed policies, and instead pursue new ones that empower workers.
Throughout history, in diverse contexts ranging from apartheid South Africa to Brazil’s military rule, and Myanmar’s coup, unions have fought authoritarians and changed the world.
We are the champions of democracy.
Build a mass movement in this moment, pass policies that empower us, and we will prove it again. Thank you.
Contact: Mia Jacobs, 202-637-5018